This invention relates to a fleecy confectionery producing machine which includes a rotary fleecy confectionery extruding cylindrical member rotating at a high speed to extrude the material for the fleecy confectionery into continuous fibers.
Hithertofore, since the rotary fleecy confectionery extruding cylindrical member of the fleecy confectionery producing machine was heated with gas, when the gas was burnt, the gas decomposed into carbon dioxide and water and the water adhered to the produced fleecy confectionery fibers to thereby make it difficult to maintain the confectionery in the fibrous form for a long period of time.
It has been also known the rotary fleecy confectionery extruding cylindrical member having a plurality of circular through holes or slits and a nichrome wire heater attached to the inner peripheral surface of the cylindrical member. However, in order to prevent leak from or short-circuiting of the nichrome wire heater, the part surrounding the nichrome wire heater has to be made insulative having burning resistance by subjecting the part to porcelain enamel treatment. It is difficult to perform perfect porcelain enamel treatment on the surrounding part to make the part insulative and the thus treated part has a noninsulative portion which is quite hazardous. In addition, the thus treated surrounding part has a pin hole or holes formed therein and tends to become hazardous state after a prolonged use of the rotary fleecy confectionery extruding cylindrical member. In addition, porcelain enamel treatment itself is not suitable for mass production scheme. Furthermore, in order to supply current to the nichrome wire heater attached to the inner peripheral surface of the rotary fleecy confectionery extruding cylindrical member, it is necessary to mount a slip ring capable of resisting high voltage and a rotary transducer on the rotary shaft of the rotary cylindrical member resulting in massive structure.
A domestic fleecy confectionery producing device is shown in Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. 30718/1969 (Japanese Utility Model Application No. 78793/1966 filed Aug. 22, 1966 in the names of Hiroshi Nemoto et al.) and the domestic fleecy confectionery producing device comprises a vertical frame including a plurality of legs the lower ends of which are covered by rubber caps, an open top cylinder mounted on the frame and having openings in the side wall, a material receiving container coaxially supported within the cylinder and having an open top lid surrounding an upper portion of the container, a vertical shaft drivingly connected at the upper end to the material receiving container and having a pinion mounted at the lower end, a gear meshing with the pinion, a horizontal shaft for the gear, an arm connected to the other end of the horizontal shaft, a handle connected to the other end of the arm, an electric heater mount mounted within the cylinder below the container and having a nichrome wire wound on the heater mount and a shroud surrounding a lower portion of the container and the heater mount. However, the known domestic confectionery producing device has the disadvantages that a rather long time is required to heat the rotary fleecy confectionery extruding cylindrical member or material receiving container to an operative temperature and that thermal load on the rotary cylindrical member and accordingly, the heating temperature varies depending upon the feed rate of materials to the container.
In the domestic fleecy confectionery producing device of the above type, if the fleecy confectionery material employed consists of monosaccharide only, fleecy confectionery fibers can be continuously extruded by predeterminating the number and diameter of through holes in the rotary extruding cylindrical member or container. However, also in such a case, although the rotary fleecy confectionery extruding cylindrical member is rotated at a high speed to produce fleecy confectionery fibers, if the rotational speed is excessively high or low, satisfactory fleecy confectionery fibers can not be produced and it is difficult to determine the rotational speed of the cylindrical member in the domestic fleecy confectionery producing device of the above type. And the domestic fleecy confectionery producing device is difficult to be applied for producing fleecy confectionery fibers using disaccharide, mixtures thereof and other mixtures containing chewing gum base as materials.
In Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 21741/1966 (Japanese Patent Application No. 12616/1964 filed Mar. 7, 1964 in the name of Haruo Akutsu) for "Fleecy Confectionery Fiber Gathering Method in Fleecy Confectionery Producing Machine", there is disclosed the method in which a fleecy confectionery fiber receiving chamber is provided surrounding a rotary fleecy confectionery fiber extruding member in peripherally spaced relationship to the latter, an air flow is formed within the chamber for rotation in the same direction as the rotational direction of the rotary extruding member, fleecy confectionery fibers extruded from the extruding member are entrained on the air flow which discharges from the chamber through the discharge opening in the chamber and the confectionery fibers entrained on the air flow are wound about a winding stick such as a chopstick to obtain a final confectionery product. However, the method can not produce fleecy confectionery product as having any desired configuraiton such as sheet, mat, three-dimensions or square configuration.